Alone in the Crowd
by ncfan
Summary: /Hana-centric/ I live two parallel lives. Hana reflects on what it is to be an unwanted Inuzuka.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

I have two separate lives.

On the surface, I am the heiress of the Inuzuka clan, surely the heir to their ferocity and their loyalty as well.

I have been accused of enjoying the battle too much; after all, my clan is renowned for their brutality during battle, and how could I possibly be any exception?

I am a chunin of the Leaf, well-liked by my comrades even if I have few close friends.

I am even admired.

I am admired by the outside world because I have tempered my more violent impulses; I am easier to approach than my clansmen, and I am far more easygoing than my kin. My dogs reflect this. Akamaru may snap, Kuromaru may snap, but the Haimaru do not.

I am a skilled medic; my abilities are more often called in to be used in veterinary practice, but you will find me on the battlefield as well after the fighting is done as well, attending to the wounded and seeing to their treatment with detached professional calm.

I have a loving little brother, a career that can only go up, and the approval of my community. From the outside looking in, my life must seem perfect.

It's not.

The inside is fractured; I am a fifth wheel to my clan.

My clan doesn't understand me. I know, that sounds like the pathetic plea of a child, but it's true. You may think me savage, even by shinobi standards, but to my kinsmen it's just the opposite.

I would rather not fight than fight. I am more even-tempered and coolheaded than my clansmen; I am slower to anger and I do not rise to taunts the way my kin do. I'm not as bloodthirsty as they. As a parenting figure to Kiba, I'm more responsible than my own mother.

And that presents a problem.

I am like Hyuuga Hinata, counted as the weak heiress. My mother thanks God that I decided to become a medic because in her opinion I wouldn't hack it if it came down to a _real_ fight (And my biting wit just barely stops short of silkily asking her if what I do just about every day _isn't_ a real fight).

I am generally ignored by the elders, just as Kiba is because of his failure to focus and take his battles seriously, because of my seeming "softness". I am considered soft because I heal rather than destroy and because I don't work my canine familiars to within an inch of their lives. I am soft because my dogs are docile and do not scare small children with their moods and fangs.

Even my personal appearance is factored into their judgment of me. Quite frankly, I bathe more than most Inuzuka; I'm a med nin, and when I go to work at the hospital, I need to be _clean._ I am softer in my appearance than every single member of the Inuzuka clan.

I am soft, and what's worse is where I got my softness from.

Loyalty to family is of utmost importance to the Inuzuka clan. When my father deserted my mother, if they had known where he had gone my kin would have killed him.

My father was an Inuzuka, and it is from him that I gain the bulk of my appearance and personality. I am the living shadow of the only Inuzuka to desert his clan, and for that the elders whisper and shake their heads, for that my mother can at times hardly bear to look at me, and for that aunts, uncles and cousins tell my brother that he'd do well not to be like his sister. Only my brother, the brother who doesn't remember our father, seems not to notice how different I am.

I am weak, my Inuzuka blood thin. But the Inuzuka clan will never know what their "weak" heiress does for them.

They will never know how I defend them to every shinobi and civilian who thinks my clan to be a clan of brutes and savages.

They will never know how I, with my voice alone, avenge every last aspersion cast on Inuzuka honor.

I do this out of love, for I love my family, just as any Inuzuka does.

I defend the clan that has no place for me, as my parallel lives grow further and further apart—

Because I am an Inuzuka, and it is simply within my nature to fight without mercy, for the sake of my clan.


End file.
